Complexity Theory And Change Management In Organizations

How and why complexity theory help change agents

Discuss about the Complexity Theory and Change Management in Organizations.

Complexity theory is a type of interdisciplinary theory and intrinsic complexity of computational tasks in an organization and this theory was basically formed to rationalize the behavior of large and complex systems. The main objective of this theory is to determine the complexity of a well defined task (Houchin and MacLean, 2005). In other words, it is the study to complex and chaotic situations to evaluate them in simplest forms. Complexity theory is utilized to understand the emergent change in an organization so that an organization can cope with rapidly changing business environment. Emergent change highly relies on the assumption that change is the only constant and it is always unpredictable (Burnes, 2005).

There are basically two approaches to manage change in which the first one is planned approach to change while the second one is emergent approach to change. Planned change has the ability predict the difference between the current and the future condition and it include the means to attain that desired future condition (Amagoh, 2008). It does not involve any kind of disruption from internal or external factors and it includes three stages to manage change appropriately and they are planning, implementing and results. On the contrary to this, emergent concept to change includes the natural emergence of numerous kinds of resources during the phase of change implementation. This change cannot be predicted due to its sudden nature. This change is basically characterized by aspects like unforeseen factors, breakdowns, sudden change in legislative policies, disruptions and many more. All kinds of changes in an organization are highly impacted by change agents as they help an organization to get back on track by easily adapting to a rapidly changing environment (Burnes, 2004).

A change agent can be an individual from within or outside an organization who help an organization to transform itself by laying emphasis on matters like organizational effectiveness, development and improvement. The main aim of a change agent is to focus on the impact of rapidly changing technologies, tasks, structures in an organization. In context to the main roles of a change event, he must be detective to observe and analyze the situations as well as a counselor to convince others to adapt to a change (Smith, 2004).

Nowadays, it has become mandatory for businesses to adapt to change and the success of a business highly depends upon the complex interactions between an organization and its changing environment. Complexity theory helps to understand that how complex systems can be organized into more structured and sophisticated forms to adapt to the changing environment. Emergent changes are on rise in the modern business era due to flexible political aspects of countries (Luiking, ET AL., 2015). It is true that the world of politics and economics is complex and highly dynamic in nature and creates several gaps between the environment and the business. Complexity theory is valuable to fill these gaps. Apart from this, this theory is helpful in managing the nature of uncertainty in the social world to help modern businesses to manage different changes (Liu, 2009). There are different kinds of complex theories like chaos theory, dissipative structures theory, continuous transformational model and many more which have been discussed properly in the later section.

Different complexity theories

It is evident that organizational environment has become very complex, it is important for businesses to deal with complex situations to manage change in an effective manner. Complexity theory help change agent in responding to the complexities and uncertainties of environment in an appropriate manner (Liebhart and Garcia, 2010). The organizations make use of the change agents to solve its issues that are hindering its change management process and this theory also helps change agents to understand the emergent changes. Change agents are significant part of a complexity theory as it provides sound to an organization to operate effectively in unstable conditions (Cunha and Cunha, 2003). Also, it promotes diversity of thinking by evaluating and shifting organizational and personal mental models as well as it provides a stimulus to the whole organizational system to encourage and influence change. The main agenda of complexity theory is to lay emphasis on how macro and micro factors in complex system impact emergent behavior to get a desired outcome. Organizational development can be understood in a better manner with an effective use of complexity theory and it is an efficient way to help change agents to understand organizational change as well as need of innovation (Beer and Nohria, 2000).

There are certain theories and models that are highly relevant to the complexity theory such as chaos theory, dissipative structure theory, complex adaptive systems, chaordic theory and continuous transformational model (McLaughlin, McLaughlin and Kaluzny, 2004). These theories are significant and help change agents to adapt to an emergent change with an ease in order to cope with modern business environment (Miller, 2015). In this regard, chaos theory is a kind of discipline that studies complex systems and it was explored in 1980s. This theory is quite similar to Lewin’s theory of organizational change and one need to increase the driving forces for change to reduce the restraining forces for change in order to make change successful. Chaos theory indicates that an organization needs to be sure that social and economic system is aligned with the efforts of organizational change so that company gets benefits from an emergent change (McCarter and White, 2016).

It is true that it is mandatory for modern organizations to transform as per the changing era and this transformation is regarded as a dissipative structure model. During the transformation of an organization due to an emergent change, an organization may face hindrances like internal and external complexity and high level of turbulence faced by them (Tasaka, 1999). Dissipative structure model is really helpful to ensure a successful transformation through highly unstable situations by self organizing the efforts to generate new and effective solutions to such instabilities to ensure a successful emergent change transformation (Brown and Eisenhardt, 1997). In this way, the complexity of changes can be managed properly with the help of the above mentioned models and theories (Mori and Kuramoto, 2013).

During the application of complexity theory to strategic organizational development, complex adaptive systems play an important role as they are dynamic systems that help to evolve with changing environment and enhance its survivability (Beeson and Tushman, 1990). The modern business era is juggling with the issue of emergent change as organizations are not prepared for such kinds of changes but they are compelled to adapt to such changes in order to survive in such a highly competitive era (Miller and Page, 2009). Emergent changes are unplanned changes and complex adaptive system does not involve any planning or management but it involves constant reorganization of aspects to determine the best approach to fit in the suitable environment. It becomes difficult for change agents to manage emergent changes due to the presence of complex interdependencies and CAS helps to cope with these interdependencies to adapt to the changing environment (Begun, 1994).

Besides this, there are some changes in the environment which are out of control and next to impossible for businesses to adapt to them with an ease. In this regard, the chaordic theory by Dee Hock can be utilized to manage non linear and complex changes to exist in the phase between order and chaos. This shows that there are kinds of emergent changes that do not reach the state of equilibrium due to the presence of several interdependent factors and these factors keep changing very rapidly regarded as “the edge of chaos” (Begun, 1994). Nowadays, organizations are becoming chaordic to manage emergent changes appropriately as such kinds of organizations have the traits of both chaos and order but is dominated by neither of them. The amalgamation of chaos and order is contemplated as a harmonious coexistence to help organizations to become self sufficient in managing emergent changes effectively (Mori and Kuramoto, 2013).

The term complexity theories act as an umbrella label for numerous number of theories  to manage complex changes in an organization in which continuous transformational model has got an utmost importance in the recent years to manage change (Smith, 2004). This model states that many organizations have long periods of stability or equilibrium periods in their day to day chores which are punctuated by short bursts fundamental change. These short bursts are regarded as revolutionary periods or emergent changes that hinder activity patterns of an organization. To overcome these revolutionary hindrances, an organization needs to install the basis for new equilibrium periods to get aware with new changes in the business environment (Burnes, 2004).

The supporters of the continuous transformation model of change do not include both the incrementalist as well as punctuated equilibrium models as the model suggests that organizations should have the capacity to adapt to change constantly in a fundamental manner and most of the principles of this model are based on the principles of complexity theories. The basic idea behind the transformation model is that most of the changes arise from the factors present in external environment such as technology, regulation, competition and economy. It is important for an organization to align with the factors present in external environment. There are times when external environment demands emergent change that may not be comfortable for maximum number of organizations (Amagoh, 2008). This model helps to understand the complexities of external environment to cope with different kinds of emergent changes. The overall discussion reveals that change agents play an important role to manage change in an organization. The above mentioned different models and theories of complexity theories help change agents to respond to the uncertainties of environment in a more effective manner (Burnes, 2005).

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that complexity theory can be easily used by change agents to lay emphasis on instability and non equilibrium of organizations to cope pace with emergent changes. Basically, different complexity theories help change agents to understand the need of an emergent change and the manners through which an emergent change can be adapted in a business environment. It has been determined in the above section that complexity theory can be used as an important platform to understand the organizational change and innovation.

The analysis of the different approaches to complexity theory has been done to evaluate its different models to implement change in an organization without any kind of major difficulty. The role of change agent has been discussed to manage change effectively as they are the individuals who are perplexed with skills, knowledge and has the power to stimulate the change effort. They can either be internal or external who are responsible to manage the change process in an effective manner. In nutshell, it can be said that the above mentioned discussed has stated that how and why complexity theory can be used by change agents to understand emergent change.

References

Amagoh, F 2008, “Perspectives on Organizational Change: Systems and Complexity Theories Department of Public Administration”, The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 13(3), pp. 1-14.

Beer, M and Nohria, N 2000, Breaking the code of change. Boston, M.A: Harvard business School Press.

Beeson, I and Tushman, M 1990, “accomplishment in organizational change,” Journal of Organizational Change, 13(2), pp. 178-189.

Begun, J 1994, “Chaos and Complexity: Frontiers of Organization science”, Journal of Management Inquiry, 3(4), pp. 329-335.

Brown, SL and Eisenhardt, KM 1997, “The art of continuous change: Linking complexity theory and time paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organizations,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, pp. 1-34.

Brown, SL and Eisenhardt, KM 1997, “The art of continuous change: Linking complexity theory and time paced evolution in relentlessly shifting organizations,” Administrative Science Quarterly, 42, pp. 1-34.

Burnes, B 2004, “Kurt Lewin and complexity theories: back to the future?”, Journal of Change Management, 4 (4), pp. 309-325.

Burnes, B 2005, “Complexity theories and organizational change”, International Journal of Management, 7 (2), pp. 73-90.

Cunha, M and Cunha, R 2003, ‘The interplay of planned and emergent change in Cuba”, International Business Review, 12, pp. 445-459.

Houchin, K and MacLean, D 2005, “Complexity Theory and Strategic Change: an Empirically Informed Critique”, British Journal of Management, 16 (2), pp. 149-166.

Liebhart, M and Garcia, L 2010, “Between Planned and Emergent Change: Decision Maker’s Perceptions of Managing Change in Organisations”, The International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, 10.

Liu, Y 2009, “Analysis and Evaluation of Organizational Change Approach”, International Journal of Business Management, 4 (12), pp. 234-238

Luiking, ML, Aarts, L, Bras, L, Grypdonck, M, and van Linge, R 2015, “Planned change or emergent change implementation approach and nurses’ professional clinical autonomy”, Nurs Crit Care.

McCarter, BG and White, BE 2016,  Leadership in Chaordic Organizations. CRC Press.

McLaughlin, CP, McLaughlin, C and Kaluzny, AD 2004,  Continuous Quality Improvement in Health Care: Theory, Implementation, and Applications. UK: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Miller, JH and Page, SE 2009, Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life. Princeton University Press.

Miller, L. 2015, Continuous Transformation Management Framework and Methodology Primer: The Transformational Organization Paradigm. Balboa Press.

Mori, H and Kuramoto, Y 2013. Dissipative Structures and Chaos. Springer Science & Business Media.

Smith, ACT 2004, “Complexity theory and change management in sport organizations”, E:CO, 6 (1-2) pp. 70-79.

Tasaka, H 1999, “Twenty-first-century management and the complexity paradigm”, Emergence, 7(4), pp. 115-123.